Criminal law is part of a larger whole called the criminal sciences. The difficulty is that today it is difficult to define the place occupied by the criminal law because it is difficult to apprehend where begins and where stops this vast set that are the criminal sciences.

A) Criminal Sciences and Legal Disciplines

These legal disciplines constitute the oldest rules of criminal law. Even in the most archaic societies and regardless of the origin of civilizations, the primary organization of life in community presupposes the elaboration of imperative rules whose disrespect is sanctioned. We could compare the criminal law to a tree trunk because it is a discipline that was forged after a long evolution but, today, next to a common core forced by the General Penal Law , we note that this discipline includes more and more specialties not to say ramifications.

General criminal law is neither more nor less than the law of the offense and the law of the sanction.

1) The "classical" legal disciplines

General Criminal Law: it brings together all the generic rules applicable to criminal offenses of any kind. The peculiarity of this subject is that it considers the rules of criminal law in their entirety. They are valid regardless of the nature of the offense committed, regardless of the perpetrator involved and regardless of the sanction envisaged. General Criminal Law is the criminal law of the fund par excellence.